Efficiency and sustainability analysis of the repair and maintenance operations of UNS M11917 magnesium alloy parts of the aeronautical industry made by intermittent facing

Abstract

This paper analyzes the efficiency and sustainability of facing operations that are required within maintenance operations in the aeronautical industry. Due to the elevated cost and environmental impact of such processes, reducing the operating time while repairing parts is required. In this work, an experimental study of intermittent facing carried out on a magnesium alloy rod was developed. The experiment resembles real repair and maintenance machining operations, where an intermittent facing represents a more realistic scenario and where the results obtained in continuous turning studies are not always applicable. The work was performed with different cooling and lubrication systems and various cutting conditions, also considering the size of the interruption to analyze their impact in the surface roughness. To this end, surface finished in different measuring zones was studied. The aims of the study are to get a better understanding of the intermittent facing process in magnesium alloys typically employed in aeronautical applications and find the most efficient cutting parameters to obtain an improved surface under the safest and most environmentally respectful conditions.